Teaching as an Act of Love

“The teacher is of course an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile, can shape the students. What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.” ― Paulo Freire

Freire begins Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed by stating his interpretation of the educational system between teacher and student, focusing primarily on the “banking” system, which is exceptionally biased due to oppressive teachers who direct their own misguided inquiries upon their oppressed students. Freire continues on by maintaining “knowledge is a gift bestowed by those

An American psychiatrist by the name of William Glasser once stated, “When you study great teachers…you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style.” Teachers are a huge part of an individual’s life. From the time a person enters into preschool until the complete cessation of their educational career, the teachers and professors along the way each influence that student’s perspective and feeling towards the particular subject they taught. With daily interactions, teachers become a part of a student’s microsystem. They are often times the only other constant adult figure in their student’s life apart from the caregiver. Whether it is acknowledged or not, the importance of teacher cannot be overstated. Unfortunately,

Paulo Freire’s essay “the banking concept of education” and Richard Rodriguez’s essay “the achievement of desire” talk about the topic of education. Education is explored in many different ways. In Freire’s essay “the banking concept of education” he expresses his dislike of the education system and the distribution of power and authority in the class room. In his essay, he says that all the power belongs to the teacher. Richard Rodriguez’s essay “the achievement of desire” he states that the power belongs to the student. In many ways, these two influential writers are similar and at the same time have

In Chapter 18 of Educational Foundations: An Anthology of Critical Readings, Henry Giroux talks about how education reform questions the public school teacher’s ability to provide “…intellectual and moral leadership for our nation’s youth” (Canestrari & Marlowe, 2012, p. 189). Giroux argues that teachers are not the problem in today’s current education crisis. Instead, Giroux states that the current education crisis has a lot to do with “…the developing trend towards the disempowerment of teachers at all levels of education” (Canestrari & Marlowe, 2012, p. 190). I believe that this is the most important aspect

Education has always been based on the premise that in order for students to learn, they need to educate themselves through a teacher's words. The more they learn, the greater they are able to adapt to a non changing, rather static society. Paulo Freire on the other hand believes that there needs to exist some sort of transformative learning in which the individual is better able to use their personal thinking skills. It’s a process in which the student and the teacher are better able to unleash the cognitive potential to actually create change in society. On similar lines, Malcolm X thought that as someone is able to “understand” they receive an awakening of reality.

I believe that I can pass along my own wisdom while simultaneously helping them to develop a knowledge base of their own. I believe that I can get through to students and allow them to reach new realizations. I believe that I can help them to see the process of schooling as an experience that is both interesting and enlightening. What follows is my interpretation of the teaching profession. It details the methodological and ideological frameworks that I would use to construct a learning experience that is meaningful for students.

After officially retiring, Nic found himself still wanting to contribute to the educational world. He was appointed to serve as the Ernest McFarland Citizen’s Chair in Education by the Dean of Northern Arizona University College of Education. In this full-time faculty position, Dr. Clement is engaged in teaching and advocating for education throughout the State of Arizona and the nation.

Educating Esmé is a book of journal entries of a first year teacher who faced and overcame so many instances on both sides of the spectrum of good and bad. These first person experiences show us how she grew not only as a teacher but also as a person. It also allowed her to see the other side of the school system but from the other side of the desk as the teacher. This inspirational teachers name is Esmé Codell who wrote this to show her thoughts without all the sugary coating but with in-depth feelings and emotions which really attracts the reader’s attention because they can relate to these instances because they either are going through them themselves or have seen it in their educational experiences. She expresses and demonstrates multiple

Paulo Freire believes that the world is primarily dominated by the “banking” concept in regards to education. Under the “banking” concept, Freire describes the relationship between students and teachers as “involv[ing] a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students)” (216). Freire later goes on to symbolize students as empty receptacles awaiting teachers to dump their knowledge freely to fill the empty spaces. Memorization, obedience, oppression, and dominance all describe the inner workings of the “banking” concept. Students lose their ability to become cogitative thinkers as they memorize lectures, never speak their voice or dissent to teachers, and give all of their freedom to their professors. Students then become slaves to the classroom, and rather than a symbiotic relationship existing between students and teachers, the road is very one way. If Freire were to analyze

The Life Lesson Trough a Teacher’s Eyes, is a book written by Dr. Jillian Laderhouse. This book is like a journal where Dr. Laterhouse tells personal experiences that have shaped her life. The book commences off with a strongly affirmation where Dr. Latehouse states that be a teacher is her life’s calling. In the introduction of the book Laterhouse establish her foundation as a teacher, she mentioned many experiences that shape her as a teacher and recall the fact that she lived in a teacher profession family. She mentioned stories about her childhood, stories that have shaped her life into the teacher profession; she stated “I grew in a teacher’s home”. As I read the book I noticed that I have not had the same opportunity as Laterhouse to live in a teacher’s home. However, as I continue reading the book I saw that the lessons learned by the author can help me even though I did not grow in a teacher’s home. It is evident in the book the spiritual life and God centered life.

In Freire’s article, he uses a term called “banking education” to illustrate the teacher-student relationship at any time inside or outside of school. The communication between teacher and student is almost nonexistent. He describes the students as empty containers that are sitting in a classroom patiently waiting for the instructor to deposit knowledge into their brains. According to Freire, “The capability of banking education to minimize or annul the students’ creative power and to stimulate their credulity servers the interest of oppressors, who care neither to have the world revealed nor to see it transformed” (Freire 2). He argues that this type of teaching

The greatest thing about humans is that they have the ability to think. Thinking is what differs people from each other and makes people who they are. Freire understands the importance of thinking and wants to start a discussion on the school systems attempt to restrict thinking. This is what he tries to do in his article, something that he does pretty well. He believes the school system solely cares about facts and numbers. The teachers feed their students information and expect them to memorize it, and spit it back on paper. “The reason the banking system continues to thrive is to serve the purpose of the authority, whose peace of mind rests on how well the oppressed fit in the world created by the oppressors, and how little they question it (Freire, page 219). Educators have to understand that the classroom is a leveled playing field, teaching and learning simultaneously through discussions with each other.

Only in the end of his essay does Freire focus more on his own system, and explain its privileges without resorting to the faults of the currents system, but even then he uses the latter tactic several times. The essay ends on a political note, calling the new revolutionaries to realize what the name they call themselves means, and to change the current ways not only on the outside, as they have done before, but also internally to make radical changes to their philosophy and their ideas about education. This concluding device stirs up some doubts as to the point of the whole essay. It might seem from the author’s concluding point that the underlying purpose of the essay was not to expand on the more beneficial ways of education, but to criticize the ways of political leaders in his, or some other country. Nevertheless, the rest of the essay shows little evidence of such a plot, and this point is at best marginal.

He saw education (specifically, literacy) not merely as a means of transferring information as if one were filling a box, but instead as a means of liberation and revolution, that instruction should teach students how to think, not what to think, and give them the power to call into question the facts of everyday life (Gibson). In Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he suggests that the common people are constantly oppressed and forced to become submissive, and that in turn, they will oppress others in a similar fashion. Traditional education is one of the first vehicles for this cycle of oppression and submission, and therefore Freire insists that educators must stimulate students to think through acceptance and equality; that a teacher "is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach…authority must be on the side of freedom". According to Freire, it is critical that this student-teacher equality exist in order for a student to develop his or her ability to think individually.